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Thursday, June 5, 2014

The cost of elections

by Sam Huntington


If we could in some way condense the President’s speech at the USMA (28 May), it would go something like this: Today, I would like to make the following important points about our foreign policy, the state of our economy, and my current world view. Uh (pause) thank you very much.”

Beyond the usual banalities, beyond comparing himself to political leaders of the past, beyond continuing his campaign to apologize to the world for US policies of the past (which fed all of Europe for five years following World War II), his commencement speech at the USMA was, in the view of Charles Krauthammer, “literally pointless.”


He didn’t have a point. It was a defensive speech. It was an answer to the chorus of criticism from his side of the aisle that it’s been a weak, rudderless foreign policy, which it has been. I spoke to a member of the Congress who was in the Armed Forces, and he says there was a real pettiness and personalization of this [speech]. This is a graduation speech for West Point; it is a place where you want to inspire future officers. It isn’t a place you want to answer your critics or go point by point against all the attacks...

While I do agree with Krauthammer’s critique, we need to acknowledge the fact that US foreign policy has been a disaster for a very long time. Stop and think about the absurdity of the Truman Doctrine that, on the one hand, sought to encourage political freedom throughout Europe and then loathed anyone who chose Marxian socialism. This brainless process has cost 37,000 dead in Korea, 58,000 dead in Vietnam, nearly 7,000 in Afghanistan and Iraq and in those last two conflicts, 56,000 wounded. So as I keep reminding everyone, elections have consequences. The American people are paying a very heavy price for electing people who have no business leading this country.

Occasionally, wars are inevitable and necessary; however, we seem to find a reason to have one on the average of every 20 years. Going back to World War I, Democratic Presidents seem to be the ones who take us to war most often —I’m not surprised. War is easy to commit troops to when there is never any personal danger, or for that matter, any possibility that your own children will be harmed by it.

What we appear to have overlooked in our foreign policy fiasco is a genuine interest in involving ourselves in other people’s affairs. I keep hearing people use the phrase “US interests,” but I’ve never heard anyone give specific information about what that interest is, or a satisfactory justification for taking the nation to war. Fellow blogger Marine-4-Ever once suggested, “America never went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. They did what Bush told them to do ... they went to the mall. Our troops went to war."

Somehow, this is okay with most Americans.

President Obama claims we must not become an isolationist nation —and I agree with this to some extent. But neither are we the planetary police force. I cannot think of one genuine US interest in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, or Libya. Not one. In spite of this, you continually hear lame brains such as John McCain supporting Syrian rebels, or championing the idea that we should be arming and training these people. I can’t speak for most Americans, but I am personally stunned that McCain is suggesting that we train and supply Syrian rebels who are affiliates either of the Taliban, Al Qaeda, or the Iranian Republican Guard. It forces me to conclude that there is really only one solution to our John McCain problem: euthanasia. McCain could not have been measurably worse than the current occupant of the White House.

Returning now to elections, I continue to wonder how many more Americans have to die in foreign entanglements before the American people wise up to this reality: it is their poor choices during elections that is killing off and crippling our sons and daughters.

30 comments:


  1. In 2014 and in 2016 America’s elections will see the Republicans WIN !!!
    We will see the Republicans WIN BIG!!! REAL Americans will take our country back!
    This Obomination of Destruction will be NO more!
    It’s not only that Americans are upset that a potential Deserter was released , because that will be for the military courts to decide, if and what punishment is due. What we are upset about is the details, and LIES that are once again involved here. FIVE DANGEROUS AND VICIOUS TALIBAN COMMANDERS WERE released AND Congress was NOT involved with that decision, nor were they even informed! (in violation of the law).

    Notice how these Left winger can't handle the truth, with their stupid and sarcastic answers! Not to mention the name calling by their Leader and master fuhrer SHAW!

    Chalk it up to just loony leftist whining, and stupid excuses and shifting the blame and never accepting it.

    They know the real story and have broken their silence. And they are pissed off. Don't try to make this like a fairy tale that fox made up.

    All hell is breaking loose over Obama's SCREW-UP over this young man who has cost the livers of 6 BRAVE man by his DESERTING, and Obama's insane deal.
    Deep down, they know the real story and they are pissed off because their Leader did it again! .So don't try to make this into a fairy tale that Fox News made up. SHAW LIES, and SHAW'S bunch of a-holes swear to it. Obama, and Rice lies to the American people, and SHAW Lies to her readers.

    Just like Benghazi, when Obama, Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton, went out lying after they knew there had been a terrorist attack.
    These Liberals, Progressives can call it whatever they want, everyone else knows the truth.

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    2. Clinton will win the White House if she runs, and if the GOP takes the Senate in '14, there will be a Dem landslide on The Hill coming with her in '16.

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    3. JMJ,

      You might be right and we can be sure that even Clinton is better that the current occupant but so would Alfred E Newman..

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    4. @Watchman:
      Judging by the limp reception he received at the West Point commencement exercises.....the military has caught on to this guy and are deciding to come out against him. Of course after their separation from the service to keep the hungry JAG's starving.

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    5. The notion that we should even care what the military feels about these things should make us all the more concerned that we have such a massive military state, Impertinent (your moniker being another reason we should be concerned with that).

      Skud, Alfred E Newman is a far better choice than any of the silly clowns you cons adore.

      JMJ

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  2. Unfortunately, what many of us have been saying since day one is catching up to him and more Americans. A day late and a dollar short for our country.

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  3. Amen to that. Bunker

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  4. Why don’t you just go ahead and Impeach the man already, you idiots GOPer’s . You can barely stand it every day he's in office. You deny him the legitimacy of his election. You defy the people who voted for him. You forget what you said literally days before and reverse yourself on a dime, knowing full well that your side forgives anything so long as you can take another smack at him. So, just do it. Go on record at commencing impeachment proceedings. Appoint some hanging judges to the committee, drag everyone and his or her mother in to testify, refuse to hear any exculpatory evidence, denounce it all, and send it off to the Senate for trail presided over by Chief Justice Roberts. Think of all the money you can raise! Go ahead, GOP, cover yourself in glory. Remember the marker you are laying down, because the rest of us are never going to forget it. And while your at it, when are you going to admit that you hate him because of the fact he’s BLACK?

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    1. Actually, Mikey, the only person who brought up the color of Obama’s skin was you ... so if we view your statement in the same context in which it was said, if we apply that standard to you, who is a racist?

      You are also wrong about impeachment; I do not know of anyone who wants to see him impeached. No, we would much rather see him convicted in the Senate and thrown into the trash heap where he belongs. No worries, though; that is only a fantasy. Obama is good to go for as long as this country is able to produce low-information citizens like yourself who continue voting for people such as the undertaker, Harry Reid.

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    2. Sam Huntington said: "I do not know of anyone who wants to see him impeached."
      ..

      Really? Gimme a break. Every loser on right wing talk TV and radio?

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  5. Agreed. We removed the regional counterweight to Iran and installed a Tehran-freindly proxy; we spent the last 12 years fighting a goat-centric insurgency. And we've not once considered electing a candidate who would pursue anything but the above.

    We deserve the clowns we get.

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    1. Ci:

      "goat-centric insurgency.."

      That's a keeper...thanks for the laugh.

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  7. Like I say, CI, we fought two wars in the East and Iran won both of them.

    Not that Republicans have ever been that good at keeping us out of conflicts.
    Eisenhower did us no favors picking up the gauntlet in Indochina
    Bush Daddy in Kuwait
    The Nixon/Kissinger team was pretty formidable.

    So we continue to muck around in a world we don't understand ... or do we?
    Follow the money. Always follow the money.

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    1. Is this another of your one-sided revisionist views of history? Your admonition of following the money is quite legitimate, but you have somehow omitted Truman (who actually got us involved in Indochina), Kennedy (who exacerbated the problem), and Johnson (who went balls to the wall in Vietnam). And of course, Clinton only managed to destroy downtown New York City ....

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    2. Sam, now that's not fair...Clinton also laid waste to a malevolent asprin factory in Sudan.

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    3. Sam, you seem to have neglected Eisenhower's terror bombing campaign in Saigon.

      Eisenhower picked up for the French in Indochina since they were busy trying to hold on to Algeria.

      Frankly, it's always a hoot when a fringe right winger starts writing about who "knows history".

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    4. Your reference to NYC is confusing, Sam.

      I went to MOMA recently and the old downtown is still there.

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    5. CI, then I come back with the Great Raygun binding the nation's wounds in Grenada after his Lebanon disaster (we'll leave Central America alone for now, a great triumph).

      Reading conservatives so often reminds me of the goings on in "Mad Men" (solid TV). They work so hard to project surface respectability when everyone knows what's happening under the surface.
      But I don't know whether the far right is in denial or really accepts that veneer as truth.

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  8. Our founding fathers emphasized the importance of a moral and an informed society on numerous occasions. Apparently, these early thinkers had a different view about what it is that constitutes educated persons —believing, perhaps, that an educated person is able to think for him or herself, to reason, to apply logic, to form conclusions based on what is known to be a fact, and to weigh carefully various opposing views. In this, it would seem that our grand experiment has failed because today we seem to define morality as whatever makes you feel good, and education as the ability to recite talking points and platitudes that originate from a neo-Marxist agenda that entails anything but freedom and democracy.

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    1. This post isn't about Dave Miller or Bergdahl. Stay focused, please.

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  10. "The cost of elections"

    If the current Clown-In-Chief got everything that he wanted the cost(s) both present and protracted, would be immeasurable. We are still paying a very high cost from the LBJ* era!

    *Arguably the most evil occupant to ever disgrace the White House

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  11. All I care about is what affect me and my family. Bush started a war on lies and should be in jail with the rest of his administration.

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  12. All you care about is yourself ... incredible. And we wonder why this country is so screwed up.

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  14. Jack,

    That's a fundamental flaw of liberalism but I'm not saying anything new.

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  15. Just like the battery Bunny it keeps on going and going

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  16. Jack Whyte...well said. Sad, but well said.

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